Compare And Contrast Martin Luther King Jr And Malcolm X

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Leaders with a purpose Racism has been one of the strongest issues in history. Although racism has been contained throughout the years, it has not completely ended. African Americans were at one point deprived of voting, being entitled to the same rights as white Americans. Black Americans could not go to an all white school or use the same facilities as the white Americans. There were many leaders who fought for civil rights such as, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr, James Baldwin, and Marcus Garvey. Each of these political figures had different ways of protesting. A lot of them had similarities along with differences. The two most powerful and influential leaders were Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X. They both had different views on…show more content…
He did not care if violence had to be used to achieve his goals. As a kid Malcolm X had to go through a series of traumatic events, which led him to become an activist. The two leaders were very different. Malcolm X who drifted between New York City and Boston was imprisoned for larceny and robbery convicted to prison for 10 years. While in jail he read many books to catch up on the education he missed out on when he was younger. Upon his release he became active in the nation of Islam, which was an organization committed to helping out black Americans achieve their…show more content…
Both of these leaders strived for the same thing, which was freedom and equality. Both very intelligent and religious leaders who were seeking results in any way they could in their power. Both of their fathers were Baptist activist ministers. They both married educated women with a bright future ahead of them. Malcolm X and Mlk Jr were both assassinated at the age of 39, due to the fact they were attracting a lot of attention. King led movements such as boycotts, strikes, sit-ins and marches. King was far more famous then Malcolm X, one of the main reasons was because of his famous speech, “I have a dream” which attracted over 300,000 people. Since he was attracting a lot of attention, people wanted him gone. On April 4th, 1968 James Earl Ray shot Martin Luther King Jr while standing on a balcony in his second-floor hotel room. Members of the Nation of Islam organization shot Malcolm X to death on February 21, 1965. Both activist leaders were successful in their own ways and got results one way or another. If they hadn’t been assassinated at such an early age they would have gotten much more results then they did. King and X towards the end of their lives started looking at problems that existed in the society in general besides segregation and inequality. King and Malcolm X were looked upon as great
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